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Wednesday, September 10, 1980
lincoln, nebraska vol. 105, no. 10
HatGtv rules, lack ot monev cause class crowainff
By Bred Kuhn
A lack of money and a shortage of classroom space are
the causes of overcrowding in many required and some
popular elective courses, said Tony Schkade, UNL's
assistant director of registration and records.
The problem is most severe in sections meeting
between 9:30 ajrt. and 1:30 p.m., he said.
Student enrollment is so high during this period that
there are no rooms available to divide a class into
additional sections.
In 1967-68, the university had 211 general purpose
classrooms. At that time, 17,563 students were enrolled
at the university.
Ten years later, the enrollment at UNL was nearly
23,000 students. At that time, the number of available
classrooms had dwindled to 163 general purpose rooms,
with an additional 10 rooms available for varying depart
ment conditions.
The other rooms were converted to office space when
growing enrollment and expanding curriculum required
an increase in faculty members and more departmental arrange your classrooms like a military academy,
offices. - Schkade said.
Ray Coffey, UNL business manager, said the student
capacity of a room is determined by two factors. The
overriding rule is a guideline set by the Fire Safety
Commission. The guideline limits capacity of rooms with
only one exit to 5Q students. Rooms with easily
removable first floor windows may be considered to have
more than one exit.
The second factor is a formula derived by the Western
Interstate Commission on Higher Education, which
determines the number of students a room may handle
based on the square footage of the room. Coffey said that
an effort is made to allow for visual obstructions such as
structural columns and alcoves.
However, occasionally a mistake is made. For instance,
Room 208 in Burnett is a second floor room with one
exit. Fire safety dictates a maximum capacity of 50
students. However, the room was mistakenly booked as
having a capacity of 72 students.
"The rooms are all exactly the same, with classes fixed
at 35 students.
Class assignments at UNL are based on information from
three departments: business, institutional research and
planning, and the office of registration and records.
"The place where a class meets can make or break a
course," Schkade said.
"At the start of a semester, the place where a class
meets is really important. But if you ask a professor -today
what room he wanted last year that he didn't get,
he probably will not remember."
Schkade said he thinks the cramped situation might be
alleviated by scheduling more classes in the early morn
ings -and evenings. He suggested an alternative program
that would create a situation of uniform class length,
shortening the current Tuesday and Thursday classes.
This would Jeave teachers and class rooms available for
more classes.
"Ideally, if you want the perfect situation, you should
Center counsels convicts
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Photo by Mark Billingsley
Is the city campus on its way to the junkyard? A grounds director thinks it is,
and tells why litter is a costly business. See Page 6 for the story.
By Mary Kempkes
Last week, a UNL student was directed
to a Lincoln drug center for drug rehabil
itation following a felony drug conviction.
This week, Kevin Urbom, 21, begins
his two to four month sentence at the
Lincoln Post Care Center. Counselors
there will attempt to"'give him a differ
ent outlook oh life" and drugs, said its
director, Dr. Miriam Haworth.
Urbom, an Arapahoe native and a
former Kearney State College student,
was sentenced and fined $2,000
Sept. 3 in U.S. District Court after earlier
pleading guilty to attempted manufacture
of a hallucinogenic drug. The charge carries
a maximum penalty of five years in prison,
and a $10,000 fine.
But U.S. District judge Donald O' Brien
of Sioux City, Iowa, gave Urbom probation-through
the center-of not less than
60 or more than 120 days. O'Brien was
named to the case after Nebraska's feder
al judges disqualified themselves from the
case 'because of the defendant's uncle,
chief of the U.S. District Court Warren K.
Urbom of Lincoln.
O'Brien said Kevin Urbom would have
received a prison term, but provisions in
the Youth Corrections Act do not allow
for both prison and probation.
Urbom will benefit from probationary
treatment at the center, O'Brien said,
because in addition to the counseling he
will receive, the student can continue
classes at UNL
Dr. Haworth, a psychologist for the
Department of Correctional Services and
coordinator of chemical dependancy pro
gram, said Urbom will have check-in
and check-out times and will not be free
"to just run around."
Although Dr. Haworth said she could
not release specific information about a
patient's care, she gave examples of rout
ines Urbom is likely to undergo at the cen
ter. Urbom will be assigned a cubicle-sized
bedroom at the Lincoln Post Care Center,
in air-park, a dormitory-like building,
Haworth said. Group therapy sessions with
small groups of the faculty's 80-100 in
mates will become part of his life.
She said group therapy is a tool used
extensively by center counselors.
"It's not so much what we tell them
(inmates) as what they can discover for
themselves," she said.
"We hope to obtain-we hope the man
will obtain-a different lifestyle and that he
will look at what he is doing and look at
the consequences of his behavior. Then he
can alter his self-defeating behavior so he
will stay out of prison."
A 1977 study, by the center showed its
patients averaged 18 percent recidivism,
meaning that 18 percent of the patients
released committed another crime and
returned to prison.
"But you can't tell if they're back on
drugs if they're out on their own," she
said.
The chemical dependancy staff also
uses a variety of psychological approaches,
Haworth said, and tries to 'look at the
total person. The whole is bigger than the
sum of the parts."
Haworth's 20 counselors work in the
men and women's centers in Lincoln,
Omaha and at the penetentiary.
Graduate's travel, teaching are 'success story
By Patti Gallagher
He jokingly termed his tale "the success story of a
UNL graduate from Omaha."
Well, if you call spending a year in a Japanese univer
sity, working for Time-Life magazine and winning a full
ride scholarship to work on yourTh.D. successful, then
Doug Rice fits the bill.
Rice, 22, is a 1979 UNL graduate in anthropology and
Asian studies. He also received a Kawaski travel grant in
1977. The grant enabled him to spend his junior year in
Japan.
Rice said he began his 10-month stay in Japan not
knowing how to say hello in Japanese. But, he learned
it quickly at Nanzan University in Nagoya with help from
professors who taught English.
In addition to the language, Rice studied Japanese
history, culture and politics.
Rice's non-academic pursuits in Japan were studying -
Zen Buddhism, photographing Japanese life, learning
martial art similar to judo and going to bars.
In a bar in Japan, Rice said a friend introduced him to
a Japanese man named Doug. The man was ecstatic at
meeting an American named Doug.
"Doug? like Douglas MacArthur? the man asked.
"Here, I buy you a drink." And he did, Rice said.
The Japanese are very accepting of Americans, Rice
said, although they tend to be a close-knit society.
"You're a visitor, and youH always be a visitor," Rice
said.
Rice said he was often approached by Japanese asking,
"Are you an American?" He said that his height gave him
away.
Rice returned to UNL in 1978 to complete luYsenior
year. The day before graduation ceremonies, Rice was off
to Japan again. '
During the summer of 1979, Rice and Peter Bleed,
chairman of the department, went to Toyko for arch-
eological research. Funded by National Geographic, the
international crew studied social organizations in Toyko
for three months.
After the summer in Toyko, Rice returned to Nagoya
for another academic year. This time, however, he was the
teacher.
Continued on Page 2
n
a.
On the Campaign Trail: Presidential candidate John
Anderson wins support on UNL's campus Page 2
This Spud's for You: Two new lincoln restaurants offer
the meat and potatoes route, minus the meat . . Page 8
Off and Running: Husker Baseball Coach John Sanders
says this year's baseball team should be one of his
faster ever Page 10